196: Chapter 197 Subspace Routes

Lin Li's mood was like being on a runaway drop tower; he had just been slammed into the bottom of the valley, and the next second, he was taking off and soaring into the clouds!

"Not bad, not bad! Being able to replicate is also excellent!" Lin Li rubbed his hands together, lost in wild fantasies.

"Besides, for things like our Matter Constructor and sea breeze no. 9, these large-sized gadgets, they should be able to be stuffed inside and replicated, right?"

Lin Li stroked his chin, but quickly rejected this thought.

"No, a warship of the level of sea breeze no. 9 requires a highly intelligent AI to pilot. Even if I used this machine to perfectly replicate dozens of them, those players wouldn't be able to fly them."

"By comparison, it's more practical to replicate more of the fool-proof, fully automated production machines like the Matter Constructor. When the time comes, I'll set clear prices and sell them to the various player legions. Letting them build their own armories will not only help me share the production pressure but also earn a huge amount of points. This is the capitalist model of sustainable development!"

Lin Li nodded in satisfaction. Although this machine wasn't the legendary all-purpose wishing machine that could conjure anything, this physical replication function could definitely be considered a strategic artifact.

Subsequently, Lin Li took 73 for a thorough tour of the empty factory area. He discovered that, just like the barracks hall next door, it was also equipped with a super-large cargo elevator with a terrifying load capacity.

The elevator's rails extended all the way upwards, clearly connecting directly to the surface. After all, the giant ships and cannons produced couldn't exactly be transported out using a passenger elevator.

Both of the most important areas had been seen, and it was a bountiful harvest. Now, for the entire B7 level, only the place pointed to by the last guide line remained: the office.

"Hiss—" As the office door slid open to both sides, the furnishings that came into view gave Lin Li a strong sense of déjà vu.

The layout here was almost identical to the office he had discovered on the B3 level. A heavy, handcrafted solid wood desk, a large sofa upholstered in genuine leather, and several rows of bookshelves against the wall filled with old paper books.

Lin Li strode inside. When his palm habitually brushed over the edge of the solid wood desk, his movements suddenly froze. He felt something was off.

He lowered his head and carefully observed the spot his fingers had brushed. The wood grain on the tabletop and the leather surface of the sofa were treated with exquisite detail. Not only were they spotless, but the texture between smooth and rough was handled perfectly—neither too dry and slippery, nor appearing rough.

This didn't look at all like a place that had been sealed underground for thousands of years, untouched by anyone!

Lin Li furrowed his brows and turned to look at the Men of Iron behind him: "Seven, exactly how long has this Fire Seed Shelter been buried underground?"

73's eyes flashed with blue light, performing a deep carbon-14 spectral scanning analysis on the items in the room.

"Based on a comprehensive assessment of the molecular half-life of these organic materials, as well as their maintenance status," 73 gave an answer that made a chill run down Lin Li's spine, "the furnishings in this office... have definitely not existed for more than one Earth year, and perhaps... even less."

Lin Li's pupils constricted sharply: "You mean to say, just shortly before I arrived, this place was opened by someone?! And someone has even been living here?!"

"Not necessarily." 73 gave an ambiguous answer; it seemed its underlying logic had been locked by some kind of protocol, preventing it from making further inferences.

Lin Li was about to press for more answers. Just then, a faint blue light suddenly lit up on the large solid wood desk in the center of the office. Immediately following, accompanied by a slight crackle of electricity, a hidden projector automatically activated. A clear 3D holographic image was projected directly in front of Lin Li.

In the image was a middle-aged man wearing a washed-out white researcher's lab coat, with thinning hair and a receding hairline, wearing thick black-rimmed glasses. Lin Li looked at this image, and the corner of his eye couldn't help but twitch. Of course he remembered this person! Previously, when unlocking the B3 level office, a recording had been played. The recording featured this greasy, balding old codger.

That time, he had not only accurately predicted the invasion route of the Tyranid vanguard fleet in the recording, but even warned Lin Li that Old Man Huang would fall and turn into an unspeakable fifth Chaos God! And if Lin Li hadn't guessed wrong, this balding researcher was likely the one who created Iron Man 73, designed the entire Fire Seed Shelter, the legendary—Dr. Z!

Accompanied by a slight crackle of electricity, the holographic projection on the desk stabilized completely. In the image, the middle-aged researcher wearing the white lab coat with thinning hair slowly raised his head. When his gaze passed through the holographic light and landed on Lin Li, this mysterious Dr. Z actually revealed a vivid expression of great satisfaction on his face.

"You have indeed reached this step." Dr. Z pushed up the black-rimmed glasses on the bridge of his nose, his tone carrying a hint of appreciation, "It seems the recovery plan for the Yuanwang Star System is proceeding very smoothly, right, Lin Li from Earth!"

Hearing the five words "Lin Li from Earth" spoken accurately from the other party's mouth, Lin Li felt a chill shoot straight up his spine to his scalp! His scalp tingled!

"As expected!" Lin Li stared intently at the phantom before him and said, "I was playing games perfectly fine on Earth, and suddenly I was dragged into this cesspool of Warhammer filled with bugs and demons. Everything behind this is the mischief you, this balding old codger, are responsible for, right?!"

Dr. Z's projection did not deny it. He nodded very calmly: "Yes."

Although after this period of struggling, Lin Li had long since adapted to the identity of a wasteland warlord, at this moment, when finally meeting the culprit who dragged him into this mess face-to-face, the pent-up anger he had been holding in for a long time couldn't help but flare up.

"Screw you!" Lin Li cursed without reservation, "Since you lot from the Golden Age had mastered such awesome black technology, even being able to create systems and shelters?! Wouldn't it have been better for you to just come out yourselves and initiate the human revival?!"

"You had to go to such great lengths to drag an ordinary person like me over to do hard labor! Dragging me over is one thing, but you're also so stingy. What kind of junk have you given me?"

Facing Lin Li's spit-flying accusations, Dr. Z's projection not only didn't get angry, but instead smiled gently: "Young man, don't be so hot-headed. Those incomplete technologies were a necessary test prepared for you. If you can't even make good use of these scraps, it proves you have no qualifications to survive in this cruel universe."

Dr. Z restrained his smile, his expression becoming serious, "Alright, no more idle talk; this special projection cannot be maintained for long. I need to remind you of an important matter concerning the survival of humanity."

"Stop! Shut up first!" Lin Li was not about to let this opportunity pass; he directly waved his hand to interrupt Dr. Z's casting animation. Like a machine gun, he threw out the pile of core questions he had been holding in his heart in one breath:

"I don't care what big matter you have! Answer my questions first!" "Why can my body level up? I was just an ordinary worker on Earth, why can I increase my stats once I get here?!" "Will I ever be able to return to the original Earth in the future?!" "What kind of existence is this Fire Seed Shelter?" "And the most critical one! Are you dead or alive? Where are you hiding? Before me, has anyone else come in here?!"

Facing Lin Li's machine-gun-like interrogation, the holographic projection fell into a long silence. The image flickered, pausing for a full three seconds. Subsequently, Dr. Z slowly spoke:

"I have no way to answer many of your questions, because this is merely a pre-set recorded projection. I do not have much database access to interact with."

"However, regarding your last question, I can tell you clearly." "I am still alive, and, the location where I am right now is exactly the place you came from—Earth."

Hearing this sentence, Lin Li's breathing stopped completely in an instant! He widened his eyes, his brain feeling as if it had been heavily struck by a heavy hammer, his face full of disbelief.

"You mean..." Lin Li swallowed a mouthful of saliva, "You are on Earth?!"

"Speaking of which, this counts as a scientific accident with a extremely low probability." The projection sighed and slowly explained, "The laws of the multiverse are far more miraculous than what we imagined in our simulations in the laboratory back then."

"Our original plan was to use a Warp beacon to simply pull a resilient Earth soul from your peaceful universe and implant it into the clone body we had prepared."

"However, when the soul penetrated the physical membrane at the edge of the universe, the powerful dimensional compression effect caused a collapse. In order to maintain the channel and prevent it from collapsing, an unknown force directly forcibly pulled my own physical body into your universe!"

Dr. Z pushed up his glasses: "According to the law of conservation of mass in the universe, as a matter exchange of equal mass, you, whose body mass index most closely matched mine, were forcibly pulled into this universe."

"Of course, actually, you have already been in this universe for quite a long time. During this period when you were in a dormant state, some uncontrollable changes occurred. These changes have a direct and close relationship with your ability to level up now."

Hearing this, Lin Li fell completely silent. All the clues, at this moment, fit together perfectly like a puzzle!

No wonder! No wonder those players on Earth who won the closed beta qualification could receive the game helmet delivered to their door shortly after filling in an address!

"I've figured it all out, damn it..." Lin Li ranted crazily in his heart, "So it was you, this old codger, behind all this, having been swapped to Earth! Lin Li even thought that the Warhammer IP on Earth might have been established by this old codger!"

Having figured all this out, Lin Li really didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He was here building an empire for Dr. Z, while Dr. Z was on Earth acting as customer service and sending out packages for him.

Dr. Z's projection looked at his watch, and his figure began to flicker with slight static. "Alright, the remaining energy for this projection of mine is not much." Dr. Z's voice became somewhat hurried, "The core task of leaving this recording is to pass on a top-secret message to you, which you must keep in mind!"

"In the coming period, that Immortal who sits on the Golden Throne, known as the Emperor. The ancient life-support equipment he relies on... is about to stop working completely!"

"When the day he takes his last breath arrives, the Imperium of Man will face a catastrophe in the true sense of the word!" Dr. Z's projection became unprecedentedly serious, "In our simulations, we have predicted multiple outcomes after the Emperor's fall. But every result, whether it's the Chaos Gods devouring reality or new Warp storms tearing apart the galaxy, is a painful price that humanity currently absolutely cannot afford!"

"You possess the foundation of Shelter, as well as that group of clones. I encourage you here, for the sake of the last path of survival for humanity in this dark universe... continue to struggle forward."

After listening to this impassioned savior declaration, Lin Li was not only not moved, but instead rolled his eyes significantly. "What you've said so much, what's the difference from not saying anything?" Lin Li ranted mercilessly, "The whole galaxy knows that old man the Emperor is going to die! You're here again trying to feed me empty promises, right? Just shouting slogans without giving resources, do you want me to use my head to fill the Eye of Terror?"

Looking at Lin Li's "I won't act until I see the rabbit" appearance, Dr. Z's projection not only didn't get angry, but instead let out a gentle chuckle. "Of course, since I let you face the catastrophe, naturally it's not just giving you a few words of verbal encouragement."

Dr. Z raised his illusory arm and pointed to the very top of the bookshelf behind the desk, "Do you see that silver metal box on the bookshelf?" Lin Li followed his finger and looked, and sure enough, in the corner, he discovered an inconspicuous small silver box.

"Inside that, there is stored a Warp route map completely preserved from the Golden Age." Dr. Z's figure began to fade rapidly, and his voice gradually became ethereal, "This star map records many unknown safe Warp jump nodes. I believe this thing will be of great help for you to lead the fleet to integrate the sector, and even advance towards the center of the galaxy."

"Keep working hard, Fire Seed." After saying the last sentence, Dr. Z's holographic projection, after a burst of intense static, accompanied by a crackling sound, completely disappeared. The office returned to silence.

Lin Li walked to the bookshelf and took down the silver box. The moment his fingers touched the edge of the box, with a click, the lid popped open to both sides. There were no heavy parchment scrolls as he had imagined. Lying quietly inside the box was just a silver-gray card, about the size of a modern smartphone, emitting a cold metallic luster. The surface was covered with extremely fine nano-scale etched patterns.

This was the ultimate strategic treasure that would make the Imperial Navy green with envy—the Golden Age Warp star map! With it, the Spark Alliance's fleet would no longer be a frog in a well trapped in this remote galaxy. Lin Li picked up the metal card, weighed it in his hand, and the corners of his mouth curled up slightly. "Finally gave me something good that can be used directly; I guess you, old codger, still have some conscience."